The execrable DHS report on “right-wing extremism”

posted at 10:57 am on April 14, 2009 by Ed Morrissey

Michelle has it covered pretty well, but I looked at the DHS report on “right-wing extremism” myself, and it’s every bit as bad as she says, and as Roger Hedgecock and the Liberty Papers first reported. The DHS fails to provide any specifics at all, preferring instead to smear half of the country or more as kooks for criticizing the government’s handling of the economy. As Eli Lake reports, the DHS has all but declared war on federalism, which used to be the founding concept of our republic:

The Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement officials about a rise in “rightwing extremist activity,” saying the economic recession, the election of America’s first black president and the return of a few disgruntled war veterans could swell the ranks of white-power militias.

A footnote attached to the report by the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis defines “rightwing extremism in the United States” as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority.

“It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration,” the warning says.

The first question we should ask is whether the DHS is reacting to any specific threats at all? Er … no (emphasis mine):

The DHS/Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) has no specific information that domestic rightwing* terrorists are currently planning acts of violence, but rightwing extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears about several emergent issues.

This gets repeated over and over again during the report. They have no threat information. In fact, the report can’t even say definitively whether “extremists” are gaining “new recruits”. In order to find that, they’d have to identify the actual groups, note the recruiting patterns, and determine whether in fact they’re gaining recruits or losing members. Bottom line: DHS has no actual data. They’re pulling threats out of their collective arse and publishing them without any supporting research whatsoever.

DHS acts as though white-supremacist groups and militias believing in Zionist world conspiracies stopped existing between 2000 and 2008. Of course they didn’t; George Bush’s strong support for Israel fed those nutcase groups for eight years. Are those groups growing in the last five months, after what DHS assumes is the trigger for all this hate — the election of Barack Obama? They provide absolutely no evidence at all for it, and in fact repeat over and over again that they don’t have that data in a hail of May Bes.

So what’s triggered their antennae?

The current economic and political climate has some similarities to the 1990s when rightwing extremism experienced a resurgence fueled largely by an economic recession, criticism about the outsourcing of jobs, and the perceived threat to U.S. power and sovereignty by other foreign powers.

In the first place, the “outsourcing of jobs” outrage didn’t get stoked by the Right. That outrage got fed by the Democrats in the last two elections, and it’s a feature of the same anti-globalization loons of the hard Left that continually disrupt G-20 summits as they violently did in London. Barack Obama himself stoked a fair share of it during the presidential campaign with his NAFTA Dance.

And should we not have some concern about the economic recession, debate about trade policy, and insist on maintaining American power and sovereignty? Since when did those topics indicate criminality and terrorism?

DHS also manages to make several hysterical references to returning veterans. I’ll highlight the weasel words and provide the translation at the end:

The possible passage of new restrictions on firearms and the return of military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks.

Gee, it could lead? What evidence does DHS have of this? Oh, yeah, Timothy McVeigh was a veteran … and that’s it. I’m not joking:

After Operation Desert Shield/Storm in 1990-1991, some returning military veterans—including Timothy McVeigh—joined or associated with rightwing extremist groups.

So let’s be terrified of veterans! Let’s treat them all like potential suspects, even though we don’t have one iota of evidence of any wrongdoing at all. Yeah, that’s the American way.

Imagine, if you will, what the Left would say if we took this entire document and replaced all references to “military veterans” with “Muslims”, and all references to “abortion” with “universal health care”, and then predated this DHS report to 2008, during the Bush administration. They’d be screaming about being smeared as traitors for their political beliefs, and they’d be right to do so. That’s exactly what the Obama administration and Janet Napolitano has done here.

This is a disgrace. Congress should demand Napolitano’s resignation immediately, and the White House should apologize for this attack on normal political dissent.

Update: A few say that the DHS has to track threats and give these kinds of assessments. Read the report again. DHS can’t find any threats, nor do they provide even a hint that they have any evidence that extremism on the Right has increased. They don’t claim to see increases in fringe-group memberships from last year, or even last decade. This report is filled with nothing but completely unsupported conjecture about what might happen if people get upset about the economy or a retreat on American sovereignty. It’s not an honest national-security threat assessment at all. It’s a political hit piece aimed at this administration’s critics in order to cast them as extremists.

Update II: My friend Jazz Shaw files this under “fauxrage”, which makes a nice companion set with Obamteurisms. Read the whole thing, but I’ll challenge my pal to identify one actual threat cited by DHS, or one set of actual data in the entire report. Oh, and the veteran thing? I’m not the one who took offense to that. Talk to the American Legion, which is extremely unhappy with DHS at the moment.

This is straight out of Mao’s red book: anyone who disagrees with me is insane. And then you get sent to the mental institutions. Just watch, the tea party protesters will be characterized by the media as either insane right-wing extremists or moron brainless corporate drones. And this is really what many many people on the left (and especially in the media) think of us.

Since you guys like to highlight polls, I was wondering what you thought of the recent Rasmussen survey, that says there’s now only a 3-point gap between the parties on the question as to who US voters trust more on the economy. You all highlighted a Gallup poll that gave a 30-point gap on this question, so someone’s very wrong here.

This is meant to smear tea parties, conservatives, anyone who opposes the Dem agenda. It plants the seeds, regardless of whether it gets implemented in any way. It warns off independents from supporting these potentionally violent racists.

this is why the DHS WoT domestic intelligence apparatus was a bad idea, or at the very least not thought out very well. Sure you trusted the guy who immediately got to pull those new levers of power…but now look.

we’re here today, with DHS doing whitepapers on radical right wingers, because the GOP and its rah-rah cheerleaders gave Bush the benefit of the doubt. he sold y’all up the river.

This is a disgrace. Congress should demand Napolitano’s resignation immediately, and the White House should apologize for this attack on normal political dissent.

The republicans in congress and the senate are a bunch of cowards, with the exception of very few, and I won’t hold my breath for them to do anything about this.
I would like the resignation of Napolitano and frankly, Obama won’t apologize for anything. This will be swept under the rug, unless republicans make a big deal about this.
I want to see Steele and other republicans to call the White House and DHS out on this. The republican party needs to stand up.
This is a vile and disgusting insult.

Napolitano was already a bad choice for DHS because of her open-borders leanings.

(The changes made in Arizona to enforce penalties on those employing or renting to illegals were made *over her objections*, as she continually vetoed it until she couldn’t stand in their way any more.)

Adding this mess to the fire is another reason why she should be tossed out.

Please ban the ever loving crap out of strangelet. Please. You do not need this kind of trouble on this site. There is rational debate and then there is irrational innuendo designed to render a site invalid and dangerous. This person is dangerous and NEEDS TO BE BANNED.

Is it? Look at the adds on Malkin’s site.
What do you guys want to happen?
I’m genuinely interested.
Your arguments convince no one but your base, and actually are driving people away from the party.
Look at Obama’s approval ratings.
So you aren’t convincing anyone to change sides.
I suspect even Michelle Malkin knows the difference between liberals and socialists and facists and communists.
So…….what do you hope to accomplish?
Are you just rallying the troops?

I will be wearing my extermism proudly on my sleeve. In fact, I am considering calling the Dept. of Homeland Security and giving them my name and address so they could keep an eye on me and my radical ideas, like a smaller dederal govt. and more control back to the states. Maybe we should start a list for them. They apparently don’t have enough to do. Not enough human inducased disasters, I guess.

Well, didn’t take long to totally politicize DHS and use it as a stick against 40% of the country did it? They are just getting warmed up too…this will now be quoted widely by the press and lefty blogs (yeah, I know, redundancy alert) as proof that all conservatives are dangerous extremists.

Of course, the irony here is, this is exactly what the left kept screaming about during the Bush years but never materialized.

Are you saying that low information voters, white supremicists, survivalists, secessionists, birchers, etc are not actually part of the GOP?
That’s fine, separate yourself from the extremists.
But I dont see the line.
I don’t see where you are separable anymore.
You all sound the same to me.

Anyone else immediately think of the State Science Institute’s report on Rearden Metal in Atlas Shrugged?

He pointed to the newspaper he left on her desk. “They haven’t said that Reardon Metal is bad or that it’s unsafe. What they’ve done is…” His hands spread and dropped in a gesture of futility. She saw at a glance what they had done. She saw the sentences:

It may be possible that after a period of heavy usage a sudden fissure may appear, though the length of this period cannot be predicted. The possibility of a molecular reaction, at present unknown, cannot be entirely discounted. Although the tensile strength of the metal is obviously demonstrable, certain questions in regard to its behavior under unusual stress are not to be ruled out. Although there is no evidence to support the contention that the use of the metal should be prohibited, a further study of its properties would be of value.

We can’t fight it. It can’t be answered,” Eddie was saying slowly. “We can’t demand a retraction. We can’t show them our tests or prove anything. They’ve said nothing. They haven’t said a thing that could be refuted and embarrass them professionally. It’s the job of a coward. You’d expect it from some con-man or blackmailer, but Dagny, it’s the State Science Institute!” She nodded silently.

Anybody else find it interesting that this “report” is being leaked just before the Tax Day Tea Parties take place. Now my inner troofer voice tells me that this is done in an attempt to dampen turnout for the rallies. Who wants to risk being put on a watch list for attending a rally?
My sane voice tells me that “The One” has so inspired his followers that they are willing to go to any lengths to protect his image and reign.
Guys I have so many strikes against me, I could be the starting batting order for the Mets. White, southerner, straight, Christian, veteran, married w/kid, and current on my taxes.
This is just further evidence that the left live in a world of paranoia. They have all the power and still they fear conservatives and those of the political right.
Finally let me say this:

This is reprehensible. I demand an apology for this. However, if being unhappy about the coming socialism, and my wanting to embrace the Constitution, and what our founding fathers laid out for us, then I am an extremist. However, I agree. Had this kind of drivel been laid out toward Democrats, during the Bush administration, I’m sure they’d be crying out as well.

As for the glitch on this site a few moments ago. Perhaps it was due to the adding of the green room?

I am not suprised at all by this. Napolitano is Janet Reno times 2. This does not need to go away. Steele needs to respond ASAP. This Governor Perry is starting to sound encouraging, Maybe there is hope. Mike Gallagher is going beserk over this. Hope Rush and Bill O and Hannity will cover this hard.

These kinds of assassination and such posts almost always come from left wing trolls on this site. Anyone cursorily reading this site would not know that. Maybe it’s time up there in higher levels of poster banning to begin to see this and get rid of them when they raise these issues in terms of it being our idea. I’m all for both sides of an issue, but permitting them to freely paint us and y’all up there in blog land with this brush is unacceptable. There are a couple up above me here and they fill the bill as I have described. Go back and read, you’ll soon see what I mean. These need to be gone PERMANENTLY.

I don’t have much time to spend on this right now, but I’d like to at least address the title of the report:

Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment

Already, before I would open the thing, I would have the followinq questions:

Will the report define rightwing extremism, especially as opposed to leftwing extremism?

Will the report define what exactly the economic and political climates are and how they developed?

Will the report explain the level of the “fueling” and at what speed its occurring?

Will the report define “radicalization” and “recruitment” and, even more importantly, explain how rightwing radicalization and recruitment is different from that of the leftwing, perhaps using the case of ACORN as an example?

this is why the DHS WoT domestic intelligence apparatus was a bad idea, or at the very least not thought out very well. Sure you trusted the guy who immediately got to pull those new levers of power…but now look.

we’re here today, with DHS doing whitepapers on radical right wingers, because the GOP and its rah-rah cheerleaders gave Bush the benefit of the doubt. he sold y’all up the river.

ernesto on April 14, 2009 at 11:32 AM

Ah, I see, it’s Boooooosh’s fault that Obama’s administration has done this. It’s funny that the liberal sense of accountability and responsibility always stops at the conservative or Republican. Sure, Bush created the gun, but Obama pulled the trigger. So, if the next Republican president were to do this you’d simply reply, It’s Obama’s fault for using the DHS in this manner in the first place?

Are these bozos trying to start another civil war? They’re begging for it, it seems.

RandyChandler on April 14, 2009 at 11:35 AM

I think that they are looking for a national emergency that would allow them to declare some sort of martial law. I do not expect there to be elections in 2010. Two years is a long time and the smallest internal or external terrorist attack is all they need to suspend the Constitution and make us a dictatorship until the emergency passes.

Reading this report I got a sick feeling in my stomach. That combined with other news such as the poll that so many do not think Obama will make this country less safe and the one saying that a greater number of citizens have a favorable view of income tax just depress me.

(U) LAW ENFORCEMENT INFORMATION NOTICE: This product contains Law Enforcement Sensitive (LES) information. No portion of the LES information
should be released to the media, the general public, or over non-secure Internet servers. Release of this information could adversely affect or jeopardize
investigative activities.
(U) Warning: This document is UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY (U//FOUO). It contains information that may be exempt from public release under the
Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552). It is to be controlled, stored, handled, transmitted, distributed, and disposed of in accordance with DHS policy relating to
FOUO information and is not to be released to the public, the media, or other personnel who do not have a valid need-to-know without prior approval of an authorized
DHS official. State and local homeland security officials may share this document with authorized security personnel without further approval from DHS.
(U) All U.S. person information has been minimized. Should you require the minimized U.S. person information, please contact the DHS/I&A Production Branch at[email protected], [email protected], or [email protected].

Finally, I can comment! I was starting to think that the DHS had raided your server site. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case.

Just call me your typical rightwing extremist conspiracy theory nut.

jennifernaz on April 14, 2009 at 11:23 AM

They have the POWA.

That’s fine, separate yourself from the extremists.
But I dont see the line.
I don’t see where you are separable anymore.
You all sound the same to me.

strangelet on April 14, 2009 at 11:41 AM

Typical leftist BS. Tell me, did you spend your last vacation sucking up to Hugo Chavez with Sean Penn? Oh, does that offend you? You mean just because some Democrat is an America hating communist sympathizer that doesn’t mean that ALL Democrats are?

Sublog, Ed,
I genuinely want to know.
Is advocating physical violence the line?
Then the DHS report is not describing you in particular or all conservatives in general is it?
It is only describing the portion of the radical rightwing population that are extremists that advocate violence.
Right?

I did, just saying thats their justification. the Left thinks the Right is nuts and sympathize with all anti-govt. rhetoric and dolts like McVeigh or abortion clinic bombers.

The ones to actually worry about are the Truther nuts. If you really, truly beleived the crap that Alex Jones regularly talks about on his radio show, all the 9/11 Truther stuff and especially wild conspiracy theories about the Bildbergers killing 3/4’s of the world’s population in the near future….then its not a stretch from that point to do virtually anything against the Govt.

The left already has some videos on youtube from Tea Party supporters talking about wild DTV conspiracy theories, and other things. They will use that to label all at the Tea Parties.

“This is a disgrace. Congress should demand Napolitano’s resignation immediately, and the White House should apologize for this attack on normal political dissent.”

good as a first step maybe.

My question is a bit different. When the White House incites violence against political opponents in the name of national security, how does that rate on the ” high crimes and misdemeanours” scale scale compared to say, oral sex.

The gays who were protesting in California were left wing extremists. Look how they harassed that woman with the cross and the churches. ACORN is left wing extremists, they like to break into homes and threaten CEO”S and their families.

I want the fucktards in Congress to grow 500+ pairs, realize they represent Real People, realize their insane spending is going to, if nothing else, get the Democrat party tarred as “the party that mortgaged my grandkids”, and start opposing every tax+spend program that comes down from the White House.

Bad policy is bad policy, regardless of who’s in charge. Alot of the whirlwind WoT measures were ill advised. While I certainly can’t blame Bush for Obama deciding to double down, (same goes for the deficits) there were many on your side of the isle cheering him for it. Knowing full well that executive powers never recede.

While again, I can’t blame Bush for Obama doubling down, I can blame Bush and his sycophants for thinking a large, new domestic intelligence apparatus was a good idea. It goes hand in hand with size of government types. Sure 70% of America wants smaller government, and sure between 42 and 50% of americans vote GOP (primarily for that reason)…but they never get smaller government. You can place all the blame for government growth on dems, but that ignores the republicans that aided and abetted that growth.

Same goes here. Bush overstepped and basically turned his back on small government, personal liberty, and federalism all in one fell swoop. you cheered him on. Now look what we have.

Whyever would Michelle think they were talking about her?
lol.
I just want to know where you think this is going to go.
Whipping up the low information base over marxism and socialism.
Demonizing Obama.
What do you want to happen, Ed?
Do you want assassination? Would that make you happy?

strangelet on April 14, 2009 at 11:26 AM

So, Obama’s administration releases a report demonizing practically the entire conservative movement (us dirty federalists) by defining many non-threatening beliefs as extreme and radical. I’ve never heard anyone on this site call for Obama’s assassination or suggest doing anything other than what is legal and our right as citizens. The fact that you see us as guilty of what the DHS claims we are simply because we don’t like how we are being characterised (especially by our own government – this is very creepy) shows you to be the radical – not us.